The Doctor and the President
by theicemenace
Summary: The Doctor makes a trip to Dallas, Texas in 1963 to witness one of the darkest times in American history. Reposted to honor the 50th anniversary of JFK's death. God Bless!


**The Doctor and the President**

The date was September 12, 1962. The Doctor and Rose stood in one of the passage ways of Rice Stadium listening to John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, make his historical speech. The Doctor leaned forward intently.

"…_We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say the we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours. _

_There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? _

_We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too._

_It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency." _

As the speech continued, the Doctor leaned over and whispered to Rose. They moved quietly toward the exit making their way to the stairwell and descending to ground level. The Tardis was just a short walk away hidden in a stand of bushes. They entered and a few moments later came a humming, trumpeting sound. A light flashed on top as it slowly dematerialized.

"Doctor, are you really gonna do it? Land in his hotel room?" Rose was skeptical that he could land so precisely. Though he had in the past, the landing had gone wrong more times than it had gone right. "What if he doesn't believe us?"

The Doctor scratched his head then flipped switches and twiddled knobs on the main console. "Well, we can give it a good try. And the Tardis knows that this is an important journey so she'll more than likely co-operate. Won't you, old girl?" He patted the console affectionately then went back to programming the trip to November 21, 1963, Fort Worth, Texas.

~~O~~

President Kennedy lounged on the sofa in the suite he shared with his wife Jackie at the Hotel Texas. He was studying the speech scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, November 22, 1963, at the Dallas Trade Mart. There had been feuding between Senator Ralph Yarborough's liberal faction and Governor John Connally's right-leaning followers that was threatening to split the Texas Democrats. He was planning to verbally criticize the right-wing fanaticism hopefully shaming them into ending hostilities.

A strange sound caused him to look up from the papers in his hands. His eyes went wide as a large blue box appeared before him in the sitting area. A man walked out of the box, stepping forward with his hand out. He was skinny, dressed in an awful plaid suit, black frame glasses similar to those worn by the *great* Buddy Holly and accompanied by a young and very attractive blonde girl.

"Hello, Mr. President. I'm the Doctor and this is Rose." John stood. The shock caused him to automatically extend his hand as well. "It is an honor to meet you at last." John's eyes darted to the door of the suite where his Secret Service detail stood guard as the Doctor pumped his arm enthusiastically. "We aren't here to hurt you. We only want to talk and maybe, perhaps convince you to take a little trip."

"Who are you? What do you want?" The president sat back down looking at ease but continuing to keep a wary eye on his two…guests. They had to be crazy to come into his room with the Secret Service just outside. All he had to do was call out and they'd be arrested.

"I told you. I'm the Doctor. This is my companion Rose Tyler. We're…travelers. Why don't we sit down and have a chat? I don't suppose there's a mini-bar. No? That's too bad. I could have gone for a ginger beer." The Doctor sat down on the opposite end of the sofa without an invitation resting his left ankle on his right knee.

"Oh, _yeah_. A cold ginger beer would be brilliant." Rose took a seat in an arm chair near the Doctor perched on the edge.

"You wanted to talk. What about?"

"Well, that's rather a long story. We've just come from hearing your speech at Rice University."

John was confused. "But I gave that speech in September of last year. How could you have just come from there?"

The Doctor looked at Rose with a tilt of his head. She picked up the story. "We're…time travelers. We travel through time and space in that blue box there." Rose nodded to the Tardis.

"So, y'see, we've just come from September 1962." The Doctor smiled. It was a bit of a hoot watching the face of someone who was so disbelieving.

John said, "Time travelers?" He didn't really understand. In fact, he thought they were both quite mad. _A blue box that travels in time and space? How absurd! _ He paused as he chased the thoughts around inside his head. "Let's say, for the moment, that I believe all of this Blarney about time travel. Why are you here in _this_ time and _this_ space? Because you have just come from my speech at Rice University, I must assume that it has something to do with the subject of that speech." He looked the Doctor in the eye.

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak but Rose beat him to it. "Yes, Mr. President, that's it exactly." She twisted her fingers together in her lap, took a deep breath then raised her sad eyes to meet his unwavering gaze with her own.

"Please come with us, Mr. President." The Doctor stood with an after you gesture toward the Tardis. "History awaits you. You only have to…step inside."

John rose slowly to his feet and Rose followed. "You do understand that I don't believe a word of what you are saying and that I think you are both out of your minds."

"Well, it's not the first time we've been accused of being bonkers, let me tell you." The Doctor put a hand to his mouth in thought. "There was this one time when we were on Platform One five billion years in the future…"

"Doctor!" Rose reprimanded the Time Lord.

"Oh, well. Never mind about that. Let's just get in the Tardis and we'll be off." He brought out the key and inserted it into the lock. John stepped up behind him as did Rose, who was giggling. "Rose? What _are_ you sniggering about?" She put a hand over her mouth and pointed. The Doctor followed her gaze and smiled himself. "Uh, Mr. President, you might want to put some pants on."

John looked down at himself and saw that he was still in his boxers and t-shirt. He moved quickly and quietly into the bedroom to emerge moments later buckling his pants. He pulled on a long-sleeved white shirt as he once again joined the Doctor and Rose at the Tardis. "Let's go. I don't have all night. I'm giving a speech in Dallas tomorrow and need to get at least a few hours of sleep tonight."

The Doctor pushed the door open motioning President Kennedy ahead of him. He and Rose exchanged a sorrowful look then followed him in. "I promise you will not miss a wink of sleep." A few moments later, the Tardis wheezed and faded from sight.

~~O~~

John looked around him in awe. "It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside." He noticed the amusement of the Doctor and Rose. "Sorry. I don't usually state the obvious. So, how does this work?"

The Doctor activated the Tardis, the center console lit up, the time rotor rising and falling. "That's a bit difficult to explain. Tardis stands for 'time and relative dimensions in space.' We travel through time _and _space. In this case, we will be traveling to Earth's Moon, July 20, 1969."

John sat down abruptly. It was a good thing a padded bench was there to catch him. He swallowed convulsively, his eyes wide and his voice hoarse with shock. "We really do it? Make it to the Moon before the end of the decade? That's…that's…I'm… astonished…speechless. Intellectually, I knew that it _could _happen but to actually _know_ for certain…it's remarkable."

"Yes, Mr. President." Rose replied. "It is."

"Jack."

"Pardon?" The Doctor's eyebrows came together in bewilderment behind his black-rimmed spectacles.

"My friends call me Jack, Doctor, and I would like to be able to count you and Rose as my friends. After all, you did travel all the way from, uh, where _did_ you come from?"

"Well, Rose is originally from Regent Street, London a little ways past the turn of the next century. I am from a planet called Gallifrey, the home of the Time Lords. More recently, we've come from 1879 Scotland where we spent some quality time with Queen Victoria. It was a nasty bit of business involving werewolves. We were banished from the Empire after saving her life. Pity." The Doctor's eyes lost focus as he returned there in his mind. "Ah, well. Enough reminiscing about the past. We're only concerned with the near future. 1969."

"Scotland in 1879? It is difficult to get my mind around the fact that you travel through time and space as easily as we travel from city to city."

"Never said it was easy, but not as hard as say, traveling between universes. Getting to other universes can be problematical at best.

"Now the landing on the Moon occurs at exactly 20:17:40 Universal Time, Coordinated or, as you know it, Greenwich Mean Time. We'll be landing shortly before that." The time rotor came to a stop. "Actually, we've just arrived near _Mare Tranquilitatis,_ the Sea of Tranquility or, as it was known to the Apollo 11 crew, Tranquility Base. We're behind the Double Crater. Close enough to walk. I'm going to assume that you would like to see history unfold in person so we'll be getting into space suits. Rose, would you be a dear and Jack a hand?"

She nodded. "Sure. C'mon with me please, sir." He crossed his arms and gave her a pointed stare. "Oh, right. C'mon with me please, _Jack_." His face beaming, he made a lead-the-way gesture and followed her out of the console room.

~~O~~

Three space-suited figures made their way from the Tardis between the mounds of Moon dust, rocks and who knew what else toward Tranquility Base. John Kennedy grasped the Doctor's shoulder moving his lips and gesturing. The Doctor reached over, taking John's arm and pressing a few buttons on his left sleeve. "Can you hear me now, Doctor?"

"Yes, Jack. We can both hear you. I've made the necessary adjustments so we'll be able to pick up the transmissions between the Apollo 11 crew and Earth. You might be interested to know that the mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida."

"The _Kennedy_ Space Center? But the name of the space center in Florida is Cape Canaveral."

The Doctor gave him a cheerless expression. "It was renamed after…well it was renamed. But let's just let that be for now." He put a hand on John's shoulder to stop the questions he knew would come. He didn't want to talk about why Kennedy wouldn't be there to see this momentous occasion.

Watching him being assassinated was one of the hardest things he'd ever done though, naturally, seeing his home world destroyed in the Great Time War with the Daleks was worse. Both were unavoidable and unchangeable. But that didn't mean he couldn't take a few liberties, at least with his new friend Jack. He would be certain to make it clear to him that he could not do or say anything to change history or the repercussions could be disastrous. _He's an intelligent human being. He'll understand._

The Doctor put a hand up to stop their forward motion. "We'll watch from here. They'll be landing shortly." He pointed to a relatively flat smooth area ahead and slightly to the right of them. "That is _Mare Tranquilitatis,_ the Sea of Tranquility."

All three of them searched the sky. Suddenly, Rose gave a shout and pointed. There above them was the bright burn of the thrusters bringing the lunar module down to land on the surface of the Moon. John brought his hands up to his face but was stopped by the faceplate of his helmet. It was the most awe-inspiring event he'd ever seen! He was startled out of his near-trance when he heard the words of mission commander Neil Armstrong, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

"You got a bunch of guys who're about to turn blue! We're breathing again! Thanks a lot!" Houston replied. In the background they could hear cheering and backslapping.

A few minutes later, they heard Buzz Aldrin say, "This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way."

The three looked at each other and smiled. John raised his right hand and made the sign of the cross, closing his eyes and his lips moving in a silent prayer. Rose closed her eyes for a moment as did the Doctor.

"Jack, it'll be a few hours before they take their first steps on the Moon's surface so we'll make our way back to the Tardis and have something to eat and drink, maybe a little nap. We'll come back out in about six and a half hours and watch them take their first steps." Unable to speak, John nodded and turned around, nearly falling in gravity that was one-sixth of Earth's. Rose and the Doctor each took an arm to keep him upright as they continued back toward the Tardis.

**Eight Hours Later**

The Doctor unlatched John's helmet and he pulled it off himself. He had the look of someone who had been mentally stunned more than once within a very short period of time. While Rose and the Doctor helped him out of his space suit, he remained quiet preferring to digest the things he'd seen inside his own mind. They had stayed out much longer than the Doctor had originally planned because John kept asking for "just a few more minutes."

He did not respond when Rose touched his shoulder so she and the Doctor left him to it. He would find them in the console room when he was ready.

John dressed himself in his own clothes in silence. The things he'd seen and heard swirled around his brain like a whirlpool pulling his sanity into the spinning center then tossing it back out only to have it sucked into the center once more. Again and again. Round and round. In and out. Up and down. Over and over and over.

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

"Oh!" Rose had exclaimed. "He DID say the 'a.' Solves _that _little mystery."

"Yes. It got lost in the static." The Doctor explained with a grin.

~~O~~

More than an hour later John had not yet joined them. Rose had made a pot of tea for herself and the Doctor and they sat sipping its soothing warmth. She began to get restless and had gotten to her feet to go look for the American president when he entered the console room. He looked determined. No. More than that. He looked resolute, indomitable. Rose didn't say a word, simply handed him a cup of tea and sat back down next to the Doctor.

John sipped his tea, a pleasing warmth starting in the pit of his roiling stomach calming it as it spread outward, eventually reaching all parts of his body and slowing the thoughts in his head. He set the cup aside when it was empty, crossed his arms over his chest, caught and held the Doctor's eyes with his own. In their depths the Doctor could see all the qualities of John's personality that made him one of the most compelling, respected and charismatic leaders in the history of the world. Courage, a steely determination, strength of purpose as well as humor and charm, all were there in that indefinable combination that had taken him from his childhood home in Brookline, Massachusetts to the highest office in one of the most powerful countries in the world. He had never been an arrogant man. He was good at his job and didn't feel the need to continually remind people of the fact, preferring instead, to allow his actions to speak for him.

"Doctor, this little trip has been…indescribable. I have seen and heard things that are unbelievable. We've talked about many things. Except for one thing. The reason you brought me here. The only reason I can come up with for doing so is that I will not be around in 1969 to see these events happen."

Rose and the Doctor shared a look. "Jack, please trust me when I say that it would be better for everyone if you do not know the details. Any bit of knowledge of the future you take with you tonight could change the future as your planet knows it if it got into the hands of someone without your principles. History _must_ be preserved or the ramifications could be disastrous. When we have returned you to your hotel, you must continue to conduct yourself as if this glimpse of the future was still unknown to you. Not _one word_ of this can be divulged, even to Mrs. Kennedy."

John didn't like it but the Doctor was so adamant that he did not question him further. He reached up to scratch the back of his head then rubbed both eyes. "Okay. Nothing will be said about this to anyone. Now, if you don't mind, it has been a long night and I have a speech to deliver tomorrow. I would appreciate it if you could return me to my hotel." The center console rose and fell a few more times then came to a stop.

"We've arrived. And you are being returned at the exact time you left so you haven't been missed." The Doctor moved to the door and pushed it open before extending his hand. "Mr. President."

"Doctor." He turned to Rose, took her proffered hand and raised it to his lips. "Rose, it has been a pleasure meeting someone as lovely as you." She giggled like a school girl.

"Thanks so much, Jack. I'm glad I got to meet you too. You're…amazing."

John bowed to her with a hand over his heart. "As are you, my dear. This has been an experience that will remain with me for the rest of my life." He didn't see Rose and the Doctor exchange a glance.

Nodding a final good-bye, John took himself out of the Tardis. The door closed behind him and the machine wheezed as it faded from sight. He crossed the sitting room and entered the darkened bedroom. After removing his shirt, pants and shoes, he lifted the covers and slid into bed next to his wife. She shifted in her sleep but didn't wake. He lay there for a short time then fell into a dreamless sleep.

~~O~~

The date: Friday November 22, 1963.

The time: 12:25p.m.

The place: Dealey Plaza, the corner of Elm and Houston, Dallas, Texas.

Among the crowd waiting to see President John F Kennedy's motorcade, a man in black rimmed glasses and a horrible plaid suit stood with an attractive blonde girl. They were across from the grassy knoll close to Main Street. When they saw and heard the motorcade as it made a right from Main onto Houston then a left on Elm, the man reached down and took the hand of the blonde girl, her fingers clenching convulsively on his. Moments later, shots rang out, the sounds echoing off the buildings so that you couldn't tell how many there'd been. Three? Four? More?

People began screaming, the entire area erupting in chaos. The engine of the black 1961 open-top Lincoln Continental in which the President was riding with his wife, Jackie, Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, roared as it sped away. The onlookers were in such a state of panic that no one noticed the man and his companion turn and walk west toward the highway underpass. The girl cried silent tears. The man reached into his pocket, passing her a neatly folded white handkerchief. A few minutes later there was a wheezing, trumpeting sound and the large blue box faded away.

**End**


End file.
